I'll keep this short: There's a horror flick coming out later this year called Grace. Lots of people (including me and Eric Snider) like it a lot, such as former Cinematical scribe (and mother of five) Kim Voynar, who went to the Sundance screening after I basically commanded her to. When I saw her later she was both grateful (for recommending it) and angry (for not seeing it with her). Then it hit Austin and earned even more fans -- and not just horror geeks, mind you, although they're the ones who seemed to dig it the most.

The flick is still shuffling through the festival circuit, but Anchor Bay will deliver the DVD before year's end, and it looks like my pals over at FEARnet have scored the first look at the "red-band" (R rated) trailer for Grace. Click right here to take a look at the rather impressive new promo clip, and then come back for some friendly advice. (Pause.) OK, back? Good: This movie is not suitable for pregnant women. Frankly you should spend three years in jail if you show Grace to a pregnant woman. Ten years if you make it a double feature with Inside.

Embedded above is the trailer for Armando Iannucci's political spin farce, In the Loop, which James and others had been talking up since Sundance. I suppose that's a fitting response, for them to talk about a movie that's all about talk, as the trailer capably demonstrates (well, a commenter or two on Funny or Die still demand to know what the movie's really about). I myself was initially skeptical of anything dealing with labyrinthine political dealings, but I've been assured that that isn't really the point of it all -- and I've gotta say, the phrase "difficult-difficult-lemon-difficult" still tickles me so.

IFC will release this in select theaters and (thankfully, for us non-NY/LAers) on-demand come July 24th. That's enough time for me to catch up on original series "The Thick of It," though I've been told that familiarity with it wouldn't be necessary. At least, that's what I think they said...

Writer-director Rian Johnson burst onto the scene when his high school-set noir riff, Brick, took home the Originality of Vision prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Now, after bouncing around Summit's release slate like the proverbial beach ball, his follow-up -- the romantic, romanticized con man caper, The Brothers Bloom -- is finally receiving a NY/LA bow this Friday before rolling out to more markets in the weeks to come.

Johnson obliged us to do a follow-up interview this week to complement our original chat from last November, and between the two, the filmmaker discusses everything from making the festival rounds and absorbing critical response to the glory of talking monkeys and just where he likes to stick his tea kettle...



Download Part 1 (31 mins.) by clicking here



Download Part 2 (12 mins.) by clicking here

-Score samples by Nathan Johnson, the film's composer and the director's cousin.-

Deals. What a busy seven days! Cannes starts in a week, so distributors are clearing the decks by firming up their release schedules for the next several months in anticipation of more deals to come. We've already reported on the acquisitions of Blood: The Last Vampire and The Eclipse, but that just scratches the surface (complete details can be found at indieWIRE):

Crude. First Run Features picked up Joe Berlinger's documentary about a lawsuit pitting 30,000 rain forest dwellers in Ecuador against oil giant Chevron. (60 Minutes broadcast a story on the case this past Sunday.) A theatrical bow is planned in New York on September 9, followed by expansion to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities.

Beeswax. The Cinema Guild acquired rights to Andrew Bujalski's low-key comedy / drama. They plan to open the film in New York on August 7, followed by a national release. Jette Kernion called it "a good movie that does some surprising things in a quiet way."

Also acquired: Uruguayan comedy Gigante, crime drama La Linea, psycho-sexual tale Death in Love, and bleak but black comedy Sugisball, whose very cool trailer (in Estonian!) is embedded below.

Box Office. Was it the power of my review? (Probably not.) Jim Jarmusch's very fine The Limits of Control raked in $18,607 per-screen at the three theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it opened over the weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, demonstrating Wolverine-like power. The film expands to eight more locations on Friday. Tyson, James Toback's doc about the controversial former heavyweight boxing champ, and Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino's dramatic biopic about a controversial former Italian prime minister, followed modestly behind, grossing $5,757 and $5,657 per-screen, respectively.

After the jump: New Sundance Director of Programming; festivals in Los Angeles and Seattle unveil lineups.

Cinematical has received an exclusive clip from the upcoming blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite, which played at Sundance a few months back and earned a lot of early fans in the process. I'll quote myself just a little:

"I grew up in the golden days of the spoof flick, and I've always had a soft spot for the oft-maligned sub-genre. So while it's true that a lot of lazy and generally talentless filmmakers rely on the spoof approach (probably because broad jokes seem easier to pull off?), there will always be room for new entries that poke fun at genre-specific trappings while maintaining a healthy respect for the films they're lampooning. Black Dynamite seems to really love the blaxploitation, but not enough to avoid mocking it within an inch of its life. So while it's certainly not the second coming of Airplane!, Black Dynamite is more than fast, funny, and likable enough to warrant a visit. Triply so if you happen to be a blaxploitation fan." (Full review here.)

Anchored by a drop-dead hilarious Michael Jai White performance, and presently 5 for 5 at Rotten Tomatoes, Black Dynamite is still strutting down the festival circuit (including Tribeca this weekend), but here's an amusing new clip to keep you interested. Release date is scheduled for September 4, which seems like a good time for a strange little comedy to make some noise.

Recently, someone and I -- it might've been Weinberg -- were discussing the fact that Magnolia seems to be replacing Lionsgate when it comes to a studio's willingness to put out the seemingly untouchable stuff.

The conversation mostly concerned horror fare, natch, but I suspect that Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad falls particularly well into Magnolia's fold, and they seem to agree, as they're all set to have a video-on-demand premiere before a theatrical run in late August, according to The Wrap.

James Grey's Two Lovers was recently released in a similar manner, and Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience looks to be getting a likewise treatment at the end of this month. So far as I can tell, it's a strategy that works to their favor (that is, until everyone inevitably moves to either New York or Los Angeles). As far as the film itself is concerned, it certainly garnered its share of raves out of Sundance, but its subject matter -- Robin Williams capitalizes on his son's suicide -- had put off distributors until now. Here's hoping that Magnolia can tap into the niche audience for blacker-than-black comedy... right in their own living rooms.

Welcome back to the Indie Spotlight, in which we list the new limited-release films being released today. Keep an eye out for when they come to your local art house or Netflix queue.

We only have three new ones this week, which should leave you plenty of time for the Janna Fontana movie.

• Anvil! The Story of Anvil (pictured) was one of the success stories at Sundance in 2008, where it played in one of the lower-profile sections and sort of came from nowhere to be a much-buzzed-about hit. It's about a Canadian heavy metal band that has been together for 30 years without ever quite hitting the bigtime. You will think it is a mockumentary, but no, it's real, and the story is inspiring, hilarious, and bizarre. Cinematical's James Rocchi loved it (he even got quoted on the poster!), calling it "a hymn to the human spirit, played loud in power chords." And hey, check out that 98% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes! It's just playing in New York and Los Angeles for now, but just wait, it'll make the rounds.

• The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is based on beloved author Michael Chabon's first novel, a coming-of-age story adapted and directed by the guy who directed Dodgeball. (Uh-oh.) If Anvil was one of the success stories at Sundance 2008, this was one of the major disappointments. Cinematical's Scott Weinberg reviewed it then, saying it's "such an inert, episodic, and familiar piece of very typical festival fare. It's as if Mr. Thurber watched six Sundance films at random, and then just copied his favorite scenes from each one." The consensus at Rotten Tomatoes is dismal, too: only 11% of the reviews are positive. Playing in New York, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis.

Having not attended Sundance, last month's SXSW Film Festival was my first chance to catch up with Duncan Jones' acclaimed sci-fi drama, Moon, and I'm happy to say that my expectations were well-met, with Sam Rockwell giving what is bound to be one of the more uniquely layered performances of the year.* (You can read James Rocchi's review here.)

Well, it looks like the guys over at IGN got their hands on the trailer, which we've embedded after the jump and which carefully embraces the intrigue of the film's central conceit. Jones himself told us that the development in question isn't exactly a spoiler in his mind, but don't worry, we're not about to give it up here. All in all, it's a smart sell, and one accurately representative of the movie. AICN, meanwhile, happens to have one snazzy poster on display. Mere coincidence? We may never know...

Co-starring Kevin Spacey (sort of), Moon gets a NY/LA opening on June 12th before rolling out to other markets, where it'll should prove a welcome respite to the comparatively mindless summer fare.

*Trust me, I'm not just saying that.

The first poster for Adventureland gives "from the director of Superbad" the lowest, smallest billing. The most recent poster puts it first and foremost, even making it more colorful than the title and, one could argue, the cast itself.

In the weeks leading up to its release this Friday, the marketing campaign for Adventureland has been slowly, steadily, understandably tweaking itself to play up director Greg Mottola's last hit teen comedy, Superbad, but ever since seeing the film, I've been convinced that those expecting something so raucous this weekend will soon find themselves shifting in their seats as they watch something that's a bit more concerned about the 'age' in 'coming-of-age' than the 'coming.' It's not a tremendously misleading sell, but rather a matter of tone, and as such, here's seven reasons why you should look forward to the film beyond thinking it's the Next Big Quotable Comedy.

Deals. As Eugene Novikov informed us, hard-hitting dolphin doc The Cove was picked up by Roadside Attractions. Via our friends at indieWIRE, we also learned:

• "Don't run! If we must die, we will die." Street protest doc Burma VJ will be released by Oscilloscope in theaters this spring. If you don't think a monk with a megaphone can make for riveting footage, watch the trailer, embedded below.
• Biopic Pedro (about the late gay activist who memorably appeared on MTV's The Real World) will skip a theatrical release and instead debut on MTV before hitting DVD.
• First Run Features acquired Andrew Jacob's Holocaust survivor doc Four Seasons Lodge for theatrical release.
• Lucrecia Martel's critically-acclaimed thriller Headless Woman will hit theaters in August through Strand Releasing.
• Heavy metal doc Anvil! The True Story of Metal, will get a very decent-sized release next month by VH1, of all companies, opening in at least 18 cities on April 10, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Box Office. The three-director team-up Tokyo! took the top spot last weekend, raking in $23,460 at a single theater in Manhattan, per Box Office Mojo. The film, featuring segments directed by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho, opened to generally good notices. Eric D. Snider said: "Think Paris Je T'aime, only a lot weirder (and about Tokyo, not Paris, duh)."

Festivals. Michael Lerman posted the news that John Cooper has been named Director of the Sundance Film Festival. Cooper told indieWIRE that he wanted to "establish a clearer distinction between the event's festival director vs. its programming director." He also emphasized that Sundance is a "discovery festival, we're not launching Academy Award campaigns." That sounds good as a means of preserving Sundance's artistic integrity and stated mission, but he's not really saying Sundance will eliminate star-studded screenings, is he?